Arie — In preparation for i49, Dignitas is running a one-night Alienware Arena TF2 cup on Saturday the 17th of august starting at 19:00CEST. There’s room for 32 teams on a first-come-first-serve basis, so sign up now.

Trath — It was supposed to be yet another regular Sunday, but then out of the blue Team Dignitas – the organization, not the team (there is no team) made an announcement: they will be hosting a 1 day cup for TF2, which being kindly sponsored by Alienware, means cash prizes. Sui – the guy that lets you know of all sorts of Dignitas related news on IRC, casually spilled out the announcement that there is a TF2 cup, and linked to a page with specifics. You can check out the Cup page, filled with all information needed such as how to sign up, cup rules, what to do on game day, etc – here.

Greg — Season 11 is over; the undisputed champions Epsilon have been defeated, which sees Team Infused crowned the new champions – breaking their curse of never beating Epsilon. We now move into the off season break, however pretty much every team has had a mid-season or post-season team change, which has gone unreported except for live on PirateRadio (with CommanderX, kaidus and myself). I am going to take you on a journey through the Season 11 team changes and look forward to the Season 12 Prem teams.

Current Premier Teams

Team Infused:
Lets start with the Champions of Season 11: Team Infused. It has been a season of progression for them, beginning with a player change, the former dignitas scout cookye came in to replace the quad pistol and just a few days after this pickup the team lost out narrowly in the first Excello final of the season to their nemisis Epsilon eSports. They took this in their stride and pushed forward, eventually repeating their first place in the regular season; granting them first seed into the playoffs, where they finally defeated Epsilon and secured the title “Champions of Europe” for Season 11. However it has not been plain sailing for the English team as during the playoff period I made the decision to leave the team, the Team UK and former Team Thermaltake scout JoeyC (also known as Fisshu) replaced me.

Leftism — With regular writer Torden unavailable due to work commitments, it’s been left to baddies like me to provide some form of post. According to m0re, a TF2 tournament at winter assembly looks to be off the cards. With this news, top level TF2 has lost one of it’s iconic teams: Team Dignitas, formerly Power Gaming, have folded – we’re unsure as to whether the lack of a winter LAN in Finland is the main reason behind it although as these articles are interactive and a constant development I’m sure some comments can help enlighten us on the situation.

The teams Scouts, cookye and longas, are in the process of finding a new team with the Finn having joined newly promoted Broder and the Spaniard making a recruitment post on ETF2L. Longas also confirmed in IRC that the remaining members of Dignitas, hocz; hymzi; kyynel& Haza, have no intention of playing TF2 anymore. He also confirmed the lack of a winter assembly was the sole reason behind the team folding.

Although unconfirmed (from a reliable source, anyway), news of CKRAS is making it’s way down the grapevine – keep us posted on this development.

Update #1: M0re responds:

I’ve never said to anyone that I’m leaving ckras/tf2, neither that we would fold.

So there you have it, directly from the source!

Update #2: It would appear cookye has found himself a new full time spot at Infused.Tt alongside Greg and replacing pistol extraordinaire quad. The main reason behind this change is that the Dane is unable to attend the upcoming insomnia events, i45 and i46, due to real life issues and the team wish to run a player they can take to LAN with them.

Hildreth — Welcome to part two of my three part article series documenting and reviewing the calendar year of 2011 in the world of competitive TF2. I would like to apologies to the Aussies, Africans and Asians for not really featuring you in these articles but I prefer to focus on the two main scenes which I actually know a something about. Anyway without further ado, I present to you the months of May to August of this year.

Hildreth — 2011 was a great year for me personally; being the year of the ‘panda’ in the Chinese calendar – might have made that up, it could be a smaller animal with a likeness for orange vegetables – and has been one of the most eventful years, dare I say ‘THE MOST’ eventful year in our competitive scenes history. We have had the biggest LAN to date, TF2 going Free-2-play, launch of a new casting organisation and many, many great matches. It has also been a year of doubt and controversy. The slogan ‘TF2 is dead’ being printed on TF2 discussion boards everywhere and still being typed by many there has been dispute and frustration over unlocks, LANs and growth in the TF2 scene. There has been more gossip, controversy and drama than you’ll ever see on Maury. TF2 has changed – rising stars of TF2 have gone ’pro’, old pros have gone on the Brink of losing interest and leaving the scene. Coverage has changed and developed with new people writing articles, making videos, volunteering to cast or stream and hell we have even seen a new game mode start to become accepted in Team Fortress 2. To start it off I found a gem of an old-fashioned TF2 rant/commentary by Foster with an actual positive outlook for 2011 and to steal a quote from it made by Darn:

“Unless TF2 gets a proper LAN tournament in 2011, it will be the last year.”

Make of that what you will.

It’s been a long year. I intend to go over it month by month highlighting the memorable matches, the big dramas and the key events that defined our scene this calendar year. To avoid a TL:DR fest I will split it up into 3 parts, one to release now, one of New Years Eve and the last part in 2012. I would like to apologies to those who do not follow the Gregorian calendar, if for example you are Jewish please re-read this again in 9 months.